Stem-Cell Clinics Spread Rapidly – More than 170 clinics across the country are selling experimental stem-cell procedures for dozens of diseases and conditions – a mushrooming industry that has flourished despite little evidence of its safety or effectiveness.

Doubts Cast on ‘Rejuvenating’ Protein – The Novartis group say the Harvard group’s explanation is wrong, although the group does not question that young blood renews old mice, they casts doubt on the assays used in the earlier research and suggests that GDF11 actually inhibits muscle regeneration.

Human Stem-Cell Images as Fashion? – Human stem cells have taken on new roles at the University of Michigan — brilliant blue fashion accessories specifically silk scarves and ties bearing images of microscopic stem cells, their nuclei a fluorescent turquoise on a cobalt backdrop.

Drug Perks Up Old Muscles and Aging Brains – Researchers at UC Berkeley have discovered that a small-molecule drug simultaneously perks up old stem cells in the brains and muscles of mice, a finding that could lead to drug interventions for humans that would make aging tissues throughout the body act young again.